Saturday, August 28, 2010

Crop circles as an art form -or- What humans can do

Even if I don't believe in aliens, I think I can appreciate a crop circle as much as any UFOlogist.  The shapes that appear in fields, primarily in the UK, are sometimes astonishing, and moreso every year, as those that create them gain experience and skill.  It seems obvious to me (and don't most opinions just seem so obvious?) that they're created not by interstellar travelers, but enterprising human beings.

I'm a polite skeptic, and I'm a patient and tolerant skeptic.  I try my best to see things through the perspectives of others, and in most cases I understand why someone would believe in something.  Out of all of the arguments that I hear from crop circle researchers--or all of the arguments made by anyone that argues for the existence of any paranormal thing--there's only one I can think of that actually gets my blood to rise.  Just one statement, in that whole spectrum of belief, that makes me not want to be polite, and makes me want to club someone with a trout and ask them why they're being so closed-minded.

That statement is that, obviously, humans could not make crop circles.  That, yeah maybe people could make some of the smaller, simpler ones, but that the very large, very elaborate crop circles are outside of the range of human ability.

Really?  Really-really?  Are you sure that's an argument you want to make?  You're talking about the cleverest animal on this ball.  You're talking about the animal that achieves the impossible so often that it's starting to get boring.  We don't drop our jaws in wonder when a four-hundred fifty ton 747 is able to support itself on thin air, it's only of passing interest when the guy on the corner is juggling torches, and most of us don't care when a figure-skater pulls off a triple-axel, which none of us could ever hope to do.  But the moment it looks like something might be communicating with us from another planet (in a hopelessly obscure way, I might add) it's way outside of the realm of reason that a group of friends could flatten crops in a fancy shape.

Say what you want, about what you want, and I'll try to listen with an open mind.  When you start to put limits on human ingenuity, you will lose ground with me very quickly.

1 comment:

  1. Hi there!

    I am quite new to the amazing world of Crop Circle Art, and I'd like to thank you for your inspiration... and also extend my hand of friendship.

    I'm slowly exploring myself, and would love to know if you think I am on the right track?

    I have built a website - http://markgolding.co.uk/home

    and also a Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Healing-Magic/213593625344837

    I hope you like my experiments, and again, thank you for your inspiration!

    High Regards

    mark

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